


Make An Attempt

by DarkHell616



Series: Broken Goods [5]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Chubby Reader, Confessions, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Food, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Nervousness, Talking, Unnamed Reader, plus sized reader, unnamed narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22368016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkHell616/pseuds/DarkHell616
Summary: A little conversation goes a long way.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Series: Broken Goods [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1418539
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	Make An Attempt

Spluttering a little on the ramen noodles I had just put into my mouth, I covered my mouth to try and hide my shame from drooling chicken broth down my chin after laughing.

Spencer stopped his sentence and looked at me, giving me a sheepish smile. I’d made the mistake of asking him about Star Trek, not expecting him to go off on a tangent about the entire franchise and what didn’t work for him in the latest one.

“Sorry, that was my fault, wasn’t it?”

“A little,” I attempted to say through half a mouthful of food, grabbing the takeaway napkin I’d put on the arm of the chair.

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to make you choke.”

I wave my hand dismissively, wiping my mouth and chin with the napkin while finishing my mouthful.

“It’s fine, really,” I snickered, setting the sheet back down, “it’s just funny hearing you ramble about something you’re passionate about, Star Trek or not.”

“It’s just a little frustrating, that’s all.”

With a sympathetic smile, I reached over and gently patted the back of his hand.

“That’s okay, Spence, you’re allowed to ignore canon if it doesn’t fit to you,” I leaned back, rearranging my chopsticks. “Heck, I’ve ignored entire halves of seasons before.”

Spencer gasped, looking at me as if I had just told him that the Earth was flat.

“But isn’t that near sacrilegious? Not listening to the writers who, by all intents and purposes, are the Gods of that world.”

“Maybe it is, but I don’t care if the writing is deemed out of character by my standards,” I shrugged, popping another bit of chicken into my mouth.

“So, like the first half of season eight?”

I pointed my chopsticks at him and nodded until I’d finished my mouthful, “Exactly, which is a shame because the trials were fantastic.”

He nodded, setting down his fork to reach over and pick up a piece of gyoza, “That’s fair reasoning, if not a little biased.”

“It’s in every human’s rights to be biased about something.”

“I can accept that.”

“Hey, look at me go, I actually got a point with the genius.”

“Don’t get too used to it.”

“I definitely won’t,” I pouted, “but if you’re done ranting about Star Trek now, how about we find something else to chat about?”

“Okay, do you have anything in mind?”

I wrinkled my nose and frowned in thought, slowly nodding my head.

“How about why you’re spending a Friday evening cooped up inside, eating take-away with me,” I smiled at him.

He laughed, “I thought you would know me well enough to know this is my usual Friday night, except this time I have company.”

“You wouldn’t rather be hanging out with your work buddies?”

“We go out sometimes, just not tonight and besides, I’m happy sat here talking with you.”

“Come on, Spencer, you’re an FBI agent, surrounded by some fascinating people and you’d pick me to hang out with? Of all of them?”

“You make that sound peculiar, like you’re nothing special.”

“I’m nothing compared to Penelope, she’s quite a character,” I laughed. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

“Go right ahead.”

“Has there ever been any office gossip that was kind of exciting? Shared looks, people stealing another’s lunch or something?”

The curiosity of what went on at the headquarters had stirred inside me ever since he gave me a tour of the place a couple of months ago.

Knowing an agent was exciting and everything about him and their work felt almost surreal, as if it was too outlandish for me to know someone in that field of work.

Meeting the rest of the team was exciting, if not a little daunting.

Who knows what thoughts profilers would be having about you, it’s bad enough meeting a normal stranger, let alone one who is hyper aware of nearly every move you make and what it may mean.

That and they were all amazing, gorgeous people that were so welcoming that it made my heart flutter and I instantly felt like part of the team.

They were such a family unit, it was admirable and hearing stories about them was enthralling, but I didn’t wish to talk about cases Spencer was comfortable sharing, not that night.

I just wanted some harmless gossip to stake out what may or may not be sensitive to mention in front of the others.

He frowned in thought then shook his head, “Nothing too sordid comes to mind.”

“Come on, something must have happened somewhere with someone,” I sighed dramatically, “FBI agents can’t be as boring as us retail workers, nothing happens in our shop and I need some gossip! Not anything too personal though.”

“Seriously, nothing in the office except Garcia and Morgan’s constant flirting,” he smiled, shaking his head again, “not saying there wasn’t potential at one point, I did have a thing for JJ years ago but it didn’t work out, she got married and I moved on.”

“Times passes, as long as there’s no life altering affects from it.”

He shrugged uncaringly, looking at me with a serene expression. “Life moves on and feelings dissipate, we’re good friends and we’re both content with how things turned out.”

I returned his smile and nodded slowly, twirling a bit of my hair around my finger.

“It’s nice that you at least tried and it didn’t ruin a good friendship.”

“If you count one attempted date encouraged by a peer as a try, then yes, I suppose it is nice,” he laughed gently.

“It’s more try than I’ve ever attempted, so yes, I count it.”

“You mean to say that you’ve never been with anyone?”

Pulling my lips to one side and stirring the remaining noodles in the cooling broth, I shrugged a little and turned my attention fully to the black container they were in.

“Kind of? I mean, there was a brief moment where I ‘dated’ my best friend at about thirteen, but he also ‘dated’ our other combined best friend before that and I’d definitely use the term dated really loosely.”

“How come?”

“We didn’t really do anything, it lasted barely a week and we never held hands, let alone kissed and we broke up casually because neither of us were into it, we remained friends but things still fell through the cracks when my condition worsened.”

Spencer pushed himself up further in his seat, mindful of his own remaining food.

“Studies say that those who become lovers with close friends are more likely to have a long-lasting relationship due to the pre-existing bond that was already formed without the stress of romance, they also have better sex and stronger commitment to one another.”

“Wow, thanks doctor, that makes me feel so much better,” I laughed, rolling my eyes in jest, “it didn’t work out for us, he also turned out to be gay in the end and he’s settled with a lovely man while I’m stuck here, near thirty and I haven’t even…”

My cheeks heated up as I trailed off, embarrassment washing over me at admitting this out in the open. Others in my life knew, of course, but it wasn’t anything I ever particularly spoke about.

Spencer’s eyebrows raised and his eyes widened ever so slightly, almost missable.

“Oh, so you’re…”

“Yes, I’m quite inexperienced,” I shrugged a little. “Not that I haven’t had chances, I just never took them.”

“Can I ask why? Not to be judgemental, I’m just curious.”

“Because I knew that if I did, I would regret them and I’m not exactly too bothered about when it happens, I just want it to feel right.”

He smiled and nodded his understanding, though said nothing.

Letting out a sigh, I leaned forward to place my now empty container on the table to recycle later then leaned back and looked at him, resting my head on my hand that was propped up against the back of the couch.

“I know, I’m lame, no need to humour me.”

“No, I’m not, there’s nothing wrong with waiting for the right time, otherwise you’ll regret rushing into it. There’s no ‘right time’ to do anything, if you even want to at all.”

“Yeah, it’s sad how you’re made to think that taking your time or not wanting to at all makes you some kind of weirdo, like you’re a loser for not getting naked with someone else,” I laughed, rolling my eyes.

“Unfortunately, that’s the ever-changing world we live in.”

Giving a slight shrug, I quickly give him a once over then tilted my head.

“How about you?”

“Hm?”

“Are you ‘experienced’?”

He froze for a second, giving an awkward laugh.

“In some areas, others not so much.”

In what I presumed to be a move of distraction, he leaned forward to put his empty container on top of mine then grabbed his drink, holding the cup in front of him as if it were some kind of shield.

This caused me to laugh and turn away from my possibly intense staring.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make this awkward.”

“No,” he protested with a shake of his head, “it’s okay, it wasn’t…awkward.”

“You sure? It seems to have suddenly turned awkward.”

“Seriously, I was just thinking.”

“That’s nothing new,” I said with a wide smile.

“Point conceded.”

There’s a break of silence, Spencer’s eyes focused on the coffee in his cup while I looked back and forth between him and the blank screen of my TV sat across from us.

After a while, I reached over and gently tapped his wrist, drawing him out of his stupor with a light flinch as he lifted his gaze back to meet mine as I offer him a smile.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

“Oh, um,” he licked his bottom lip then pulled it a little into his mouth before shaking his head and smiling faintly, “it’s nothing.”

“It can’t be nothing if you’re thinking that hard about it, but I won’t push.”

Giving him a thumbs up for some unknown reason that instantly made me feel foolish, I got up and plucked our containers from the table, carefully setting the shared gyoza one on top.

Once they were securely balanced, I slipped on my black flats and stepped around the table.

“I’ll be back in a minute, just running to the recycling bin outside.”

Twisting on the spot to look at Spencer I give him a quick smile to see if he’d given any reaction to me, I hadn’t been expecting him to be looking at me with the unreadable expression he was. This caused me to pause and tilt my head a little, frowning slightly.

“Are yo-”

“Maybe you’d like to try with me,” he blurted out, looking almost as shocked as I felt.

My eyebrows shot up as I lowered the containers, my jaw suddenly feeling loose as my lips parted in surprise though no sound could escape my throat.

This was unreal, had I even heard that right?

“H-Huh?”

We both stared at one another, an atmosphere growing in the space between us.

Eventually, he broke our little staring competition.

“No, forget that,” he shook his head and hastily set his cup down on the table before gathering his satchel from beside his seat, “forget I said anything, of course you wouldn’t want that.”

He stood up, looking anywhere around the room but at me.

“Spencer?”

“Can we just pretend that didn’t happen? This won’t ruin our friendship, will it? I don’t often get to make friends outside of work and I don’t want this to affect anything.”

“No, it’s okay really, settle down a minute.”

“I really think it’d be best if I just left.”

“Reid,” I laughed with an eyeroll, smiling widely at him when he finally snapped his eyes to me, “will you calm down for just a second? Please?”

He deflated a little, his shoulder sagging as his lips set into a straight line, his darkened eyes giving me something too closely akin to a saddened puppy begging for scraps.

“You really want to help me,” I paused for a minute, trying to think of a way to put it, “gain experience?”

I gritted my teeth a little and let out a small sigh as my eyes fell closed.

“Sorry, that sounded awkward.”

“No,” he said quickly, putting his satchel on the spot where he had been sat before moving around the table to stand in front of me, looking down from his higher vantage point. “I would really like to help you gain experience if you’ll let me, maybe starting with a proper date? Not coffee or sitting at home eating takeaway together, unless that’s what you want, then we can do that too.”

My cheeks were hurting from how widely I was smiling at him, my heart hammering the hardest that I had felt in my nearly thirty years on this planet.

“I would really like that.”

His face lit up, his eyes the brightest I had ever seen in our months of friendship.

“Great, I’ll try and think of something and we’ll take it from there.”

“I look forward to it, just don’t do anything too lavish, okay?”

“Nothing big,” he agreed, followed by a nervous chuckle, “I’m sorry for getting a little weird, I haven’t been that nervous in a while.”

“It’s okay, once again, you tried which is still more than I ever did.”

“I hope there won’t be many other chances, just us moving forward.”

“I like that sentiment.”


End file.
